Self-contained disposable swab-type medication applicator

ABSTRACT

A self-contained disposable medication applicator with an encapsulated topical medicine or other fluid wherein a relatively rigid section of material is provided with a recess to hold the fluid and a flexible strip has one part thereof sealed to the relatively rigid material to close off the recess and encapsulate the liquid, with an adjacent length of flexible material having swab material, such as cotton, secured thereto and with a further length of the flexible material peelably attached to the rigid material in a manner to have the flexible material arranged in a generally U-shape, with the swab material captured within the flexible material and positioned to be impregnated by the liquid when the liquid is discharged from the recess. The discharge of the fluid is facilitated by having a manually fracturable seal at one end of the recess whereby manual squeezing of the medication applicator releases the fluid for impregnating the swab material and the flexible material may then be peeled from the relatively rigid base material and folded back upon itself to expose the swab material for use.

United States Patent [191 Bailey i [11] 9 3,826,259 July 30, 1974SELF-CONTAINED DISPOSABLE SWAB-TYPE MEDICATION APPLICATOR [75] lnventor:James D. Bailey, Decatur, ll].

[73] Assignee: Health Products, Inc.

[22] Filed: June 4, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 366,799

[52] US. Cl 128/269, 128/2 W, 401/132,

[51] Int. Cl. A6lm 35/00, A61j H00 [58] Field of Search [28/272, 269, 2W; 401/132, 196; 206/56 AA [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS2,642,065 6/1953 Negri 128/269 2,695,704 l1/1954 McGrcdy 206/56 AA3,324,855 6/1967 Hcimlich.... '128/269 3,466,131 9/1969 Arcudi 401/196 X3,527,342 9/1970 Manzo 206/56 AA 3,613,879 10/1971 Kcmble 206/56 AA3,635,567 l/l972 Richardson, Jr 401/132 3,65 3,502 4/1972 Beaudoin206/56 AA 3,744,448 7/1973 Boone 128/296 X Primary Examiner-Aldrich F.Medberry Attorney, Agent, or Firm-:l-lofgren, Wegner, Allen, Stellman'&McCord [5 7] ABSTRACT A self-contained disposable medication applicatorwith an encapsulated topical medicine or other fluid wherein arelatively rigid section of material is provided with a recess to holdthe fluid and a flexible strip has one part thereof sealed to therelatively rigid material to close off the recess and encapsulate theliquid, with an adjacent length of flexible material having swabmaterial, such as cotton, secured thereto and with a further length ofthe flexible material peelably attached to the rigid material in amanner to have the flexible material arranged in a generally U-shape,with the swab material captured within the flexible material andpositioned to be impregnated by the liquid when the liquid is dischargedfrom the recess. The discharge of the fluid is facilitated by having amanually fracturable seal at one end of the recess whereby manualsqueezing of the medication applicator releases the fluid forimpregnating the swab material and the flexible material may then bepeeled from the relatively rigid base material and folded back uponitself to expose the swab material for use.

5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures SELF-CONTAINED DISPOSABLE SWAB-TYPEMEDICATION APPLICATOR BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This inventionpertains to self-contained disposable medication applicators with anencapsulated topical medicine or other fluid and with swab materialwhich may be impregnated by manual pressure release of the fluidfollowed by exposure of the swab material for use.

As is well known, many medical procedures involve the use of applicationof medicines or other materials to parts of the body, such as the skin,by impregnating swab material, such as cotton, with the medicament andthen applying it to the skin. Such procedure involves a number ofmanipulative steps including either separating swab material, such ascotton, from a bulk supply thereof or separating a preformed ball ofcotton from a supply thereof, followed by impregnating the cotton withthe desired medicament.

There is also available, a self-contained swab having a tube with swabmaterial, such as cotton, extending from an end thereof and with thetube containing a glass ampule of a medicament which is fractured toimpregnate the swab material. This structure has a limited amount ofswab material available for wiping in application of the medicament, ispossibly injurious to the skin by scraping of the tube ends against theskin, and results in the presence of glass fragments from the brokenampule.

SUMMARY A primary advantage of the invention disclosed herein is in theprovision of a self-contained disposable medication applicator with acapsule for topical medicine or other fluid wherein an ample supply ofswab material, such as cotton, is held in position for impregnation bythe fluid followed by exposure of the swab material for application tothe skin area and without the utilization of any fracturable glassampules and without possible contact of the skin by injurious parts ofthe device and with the swab of the medication applicator closelyresembling the conventional swab.

Another feature of the invention is to provide a selfcontainedmedication applicator with an encapsulated topical medicine or otherfluid wherein a planar base of relatively rigid material is formed witha recess for holding fluid and a strip of flexible material is arrangedin a generally U-shaped configuration with one end section thereofclosing off the recess to hold the fluid and the other end sectionadhesively secured to the opposite side of theplanar base and with anintermediate section of the flexible material having a section of swabmaterial secured thereto whereby the swab material is located adjacentan end of the recess and with release of fluid from the recess at oneend thereof impregnating the swab material followed by peel-back of thestrip of flexible material from the planar base to expose the swabmaterial for use.

Another feature of the invention is to provide a selfcontaineddisposable medication applicator as defined in the preceding paragraphwherein said rigid material and flexible material are sealed together atone end of the recess by a relatively narrow seal which can be fracturedunder manual pressure to permit impregnation of the swab material by thefluid.

The self-contained disposable medication applicator having theadvantages and features set forth above permits storage of a number ofmedication applicators having different medicaments as required fortreatment of cuts, burns, as well as prepping and, upon selection of theappropriate medication applicator, the applicator may be squeezed by thehand of a user to fracture the seal and impregnate the swabbingmaterial, such as cotton, with the medicament, followed by peelback ofthe flexible material carrying the swab material to overlie the planarbase of generally rigid material whereby the swab material is fullyexposed for use with the planar base providing a fairly rigid supportwhereby the cotton material can be firmly applied to the skin.Additionally, the provision of the planar base and associated planarflexible strip provides flat areas which may be utilized for printed orhandwritten medical data and labelling information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of theself-contained disposable medication applicator;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section, on an enlarged scale taken generally alongthe line 2-2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan section, taken generally along the line 3-3 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view, similar to FIG. 2, showing the topicalmedicine or other fluid in communicating relation with the swabmaterial; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the medication applicator inoperative position for application of the medicament to the skin area oranother part of the patients body.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The self-contained disposablemedication applicator as supplied is shown in FIG. 1 and includes aquantity of swab material, such as cotton 10, and a capsule ll oftopical medicine or other fluid, such as acetone, iodine, or alcohol,that can be used in medical treatment as in treating of cuts, burns, orin prepping.

The self-contained disposable medication applicator has a generallyplanar base member 15 of relatively rigid material and an example ofwhich is polyvinyl chloride of 10 mil thickness which has recess means16 molded therein,

A strip of planar flexible material, such as waterproof paper, isassociated with the planar base 15 and in a generally U-shapedconfiguration. This strip of flexible material has a first leg section20 coextensive with the planar base 15 and secured thereto as by asuitable adhesive, such as an FDA approved Permacel adhesive and whichfunctions to close off the recess 16 to encapsulate the topical medicineor other fluid 21. One end of the planar base 15 is adjacent an end ofthe capsule 11 to define a relatively narrow seal 22 between the planarbase 15 and the leg section 20 of the flexible material. This provides amanually fracturable seal at one end of the capsule whereby pressureapplied to the disposable medication applicator and as shown in FIG. Ifractures the seal to permit release of the topical medicine or otherfluid 21 from the capsule I1. I

The provision of having encapsulated material in a culture transporterfor use in a culture swab is shown in the pending application of JamesB. Brown and James D. Bailey, Ser. No. 229,007, filed Feb. 24, 1972.

In the application, a fluid is shown as encapsulated between arelatively rigid planar base and a strip of flexible material, withthere being a relatively narrow seal therebetween whereby manualfracture of the seal permits flow of the fluid to the removable cultureswab which is stored in an adjacent recess.

An intermediate section 25 of the strip of flexible material has asection of the swab material, such as cotton 26, secured thereto andextending for the full width of the medication applicator and curvinglysurrounding the capsule 11. This swab material may be held to the stripof flexible material by a layer 27 of pressuresensitive adhesive appliedto the interior surface of the strip.

The other leg section 30 of the strip of flexible material and definingan end thereof has a peelable adhesive applied thereto whereby it isreleasably secured to the side of the planar base 15 opposite the sideto which the leg section 20 of flexible material is attached. A tearstrip 31 at the end of the leg section 30 does not have any adhesivethereon whereby it is free of contact with the planar base 15 tofacilitate manual grasping and peeling of the leg section 30 away fromthe planar base 15 whereby the medication applicator may be arranged foruse in the position shown in FIG. 5.

A pair of raised edges 40 and 41 on the planar base 15 act to confinethe swab material 26 at the sides of the applicator prior to usethereof.

The self-contained disposable medication applicators are supplied withselected topical medicines or other fluids contained in the capsule 11whereby the desired medication applicator may be selected for aparticular purpose. After the selection, the user thereof applies manualpressure to the medication applicator to fracture the narrow seal 22,with the fluid in the capsule either flowing by gravity or by pressureinto the swab material 26 to impregnate the material, with this flowbeing shown by an arrow 50 in FIG. 4 and resulting from manual pressureapplied in the direction of arrow 51. The narrow seal 22 defines a smallarea of bond which must be sufficiently large to avoid fracture duringshipment of the medication applicator, but sufficiently small to permitfracture by manual pressure. The leg section 30 of the strip of flexiblematerial is then peeled away and moved around to the position shown inFIG. 5 to fully expose the swab material 26 for application of themedicament to the skin of a person and with the relatively rigid planarbase providing a backing for the swab material to enable firm rubbing ofthe swab material against the skin. The medication applicator may beheld between the fingers of the user without any contact of the personsfingers with the medication either in opening the medication applicatorfor use or during use thereof.

The flat planar structure permits imprinting of labelling informationand entering of other information.

I claim:

1. A self-contained disposable swab-type medication applicator with amedicament capsule comprising, an elongate flexible strip, meansassociated with one portion of said strip to define a frangible capsuletype fluid medicament retaining means, a manually fracturable sealadjacent an end of the capsule, and a section of swab material securedto a second portion of said flexible strip and having a portion thereofbetween the capsule and an end of the strip, said second portion of saidstrip folded over and in contact with said capsule and with said swabmaterial positioned to receive the fluid medicament from the capsulewhen its seal is manually fractured and a part of said strip secondportion sealingly attached to the end portion of said strip one portionopposite said fold to define an encapsulated appli cator.

2. A self-contained swab-type medication applicator as defined in claim1 wherein said flexible strip is of waterproof material and said swabmaterial is cotton, said flexible material having adhesive thereon tosecure the cotton thereto.

3. A disposable swab-type self-contained medication applicator asdefined in claim 1 wherein said means associated with one portion ofsaid strip comprises a section of relatively rigid generally planarmaterial with a depression and said fracturable seal being defined by aseal between said planar material and said one portion of said strip.

4. A self-contained medication applicator as defined in claim 1 whereinsaid flexible strip second portion has a free end to facilitate releaseof said sealing attachment.

5. A self-contained disposable swab-type medication applicator asdefined in claim 1, wherein said one portion of the flexible strip has agenerally U-shaped cross section to define a pair of spaced apart raisededges and with said second portion of the flexible strip laterallyconfined between said raised edges.

1. A self-contained disposable swab-type medication applicator with amedicament capsule comprising, an elongate flexible strip, meansassociated with one portion of said strip to define a frangible capsuletype fluid medicament retaining means, a manually fracturable sealadjacent an end of the capsule, and a section of swab material securedto a second portion of said flexible strip and having a portion thereofbetween the capsule and an end of the strip, said second portion of saidstrip folded over and in contact with said capsule and with said swabmaterial positioned to receive the fluid medicament from the capsulewhen its seal is manually fractured and a part of said strip secondportion sealingly attached to the end portion of said strip one portionopposite said fold to define an encapsulated applicator.
 2. Aself-contained swab-type medication applicator as defined in claim 1wherein said flexible strip is of waterproof material and said swabmaterial is cotton, said flexible material having adhesive thereon tosecure the cotton thereto.
 3. A disposable swab-type self-containedmedication applicator as defined in claim 1 wherein said meansassociated with one portion of said strip comprises a section ofrelatively rigid generally planar material with a depression and saidfracturable seal being defined by a seal between said planar materialand said one portion of said strip.
 4. A self-contained medicationapplicator as defined in claim 1 wherein said flexible strip secondportion has a free end to facilitate release of said sealing attachment.5. A self-contained disposable swab-type medication applicator asdefined in claim 1, wherein said one portion of the flexible strip has agenerally U-shaped cross section to define a pair of spaced apart raisededges and with said second portion of the flexible strip laterallyconfined between said raised edges.